Drove without insurance

wonn

Hi, there is an extremely long story behind all this, so it's best you don't make many assumptions.

Long story short, I took out 24 hours insurance on a vehicle of a company in order to test drive it. It would seem I've misread one of the entries in the list of 'assumptions' made by the insurer given to me after I'd received a quote (all matter were handled online, I was unable to speak to the firm). I hadn't possessed my licence for two years (this important aspect was tacked onto the end of a longish sentence which I otherwise complied with, amidst many other statements I completely complied with, with no other reference being made to it elsewhere).

There was a crash. Luckily nothing was damaged apart from the vehicle itself, and not too badly. I can and will gladly cover whatever costs I ought to pay to make right, given another party in the affair got away. All the same, having already reported the incident to the police and the insurers and genuinely believing I was covered, I now find out some time later I wasn't.

I'm shocked and a bit scared to be honest. I wouldn't dream of doing it deliberately. And while I might ordinarily get away with it, there's a chance the owner of the vehicle might report me over it through malice. As I say, there's a long story to it. In essence, while in pretty serious shock after the crash (shivering, slurring my words etc.), me and my goods were detained for a couple of hours while I was threatened, lied to and had money extracted out of me - more than the damage would have cost I now realise, but they persist in trying to say I should be paying more.

To be clear, on the evening in question they purported to believe my insurance cover was valid, and I later have tried to handle everything in an above board manner, writing to them, making a claim on my insurance after being advised that the vehicle's condition should be inspected (there are concerns over it), and contacting authorities like the police.

Basically, what is the upshot of this? What do you think I should do? I think there's loads of circumstantial evidence and character history to show none of this was deliberate, but still. I don't know whether self-reporting it will cause more trouble than it's worth. In as far as I'm lucky enough to do what the insurance cover would have done anyway, it's all's well that ends well (in fact, I already have done so and more of course in giving them what I felt I had to). Could I anonymously/off the record discuss it with a police officer I've already met through this incident and trust as being a good man?

I don't want to 'automatically' lose my licence and pay a large fine and have all this put on my record. My finances are already tight. The long story is an extremely complex one in which extremely bad fortune has compounded the mistake I've made. In as far as the idea of all this is horrifying to me and would never have meant to do it in the first place, I don't think I need to be punished as a deterrent for the future, especially not so severely. All the same - or more to the point the evidence that I already know the lesson is that - I realise the law is quite simple and I have broken it. Can anyone advise me? Can any discretion be applied?

staffie1

Please....use paragraphs....!

HappyMJ

You had insurance for the 24 hours that you took out in good faith (except for missing a fine point in section 12 subsection 6 Alpha)...What's the problem? If they accepted your proposal then you are covered for the compulsory third party risks whether what you said was the exact truth or not.

wonn

staffie1 wrote: »

Please....use paragraphs....!

I did but they all got taken out?? Yes, just tried to edit it and put them back in but it isn't working. When I post it comes up as a big lump again. Same goes for the post underneath - all paragraphs are removed - weird.

Ah... my script blocker was stopping the forum software working properly. Strange. Unblocked it and it's fine now.

wonn

HappyMJ wrote: »

You had insurance for the 24 hours that you took out in good faith (except for missing a fine point in section 12 subsection 6 Alpha)...What's the problem? If they accepted your proposal then you are covered for the compulsory third party risks whether what you said was the exact truth or not.

But apparently I didn't tell the truth and therefore I had (deliberately or not, could be portrayed as) deceiving them, thus invalidating the policy. As far as I know, the bottom line is it's my responsibility to be certain I'm covered, and if I'm not then first and foremost it's my fault (unless I've been tricked deliberately, which might be the case but I'm assuming it isn't for the sake of argument).

By the way, this policy wasn't taken out with the garage, they advised me to get in contact with this apparently nationally-known firm because (having told me I could test ride it) then then said they weren't insured for it and I couldn't (until I got this policy).

wonn

HappyMJ wrote: »

You had insurance for the 24 hours that you took out in good faith (except for missing a fine point in section 12 subsection 6 Alpha)...What's the problem? If they accepted your proposal then you are covered for the compulsory third party risks whether what you said was the exact truth or not.

Hmm... thinking about what you're saying further, I agree I do wonder whether a full investigation might say the insurer has behaved badly here and must take some responsibility for not inspecting my own application better - a kind of caveat emptor on their own behalf. They just sent me a short and very neutral letter saying they would not be covering my claim and promptly refunded me the money I'd given them for the policy, so it seems as though they've got experience of this kind of situation. No threats about how I'd behaved or anything. I gave them all my id, licence number and other such information requested, and they generated a price for my policy, and only then sent me through to this list to read. I need to check again to be 100% sure, but I don't believe I ever had a second opportunity to read these terms again either once I'd clicked off that particular screen.

But with things as they are just now, I don't know if it's another battle I can take on.

I honestly do think the way their website is run is a product of bad practice and should be altered for other people in the future, never mind my own case - I bet there are hundreds of people going out onto the roads every year wrongly believing they're covered and putting other people at risk, never mind themselves.

vax2002

Do you have any type of contract or paper work appertaining to this insurance, if so and it is valid, it forms a contract and can not be retrospectively withdrawn.

Bravehearted_2

HappyMJ wrote: »

You had insurance for the 24 hours that you took out in good faith (except for missing a fine point in section 12 subsection 6 Alpha)...What's the problem? If they accepted your proposal then you are covered for the compulsory third party risks whether what you said was the exact truth or not.

This is wrong.

Giving incorrect info makes his policy void, so basically he didn't have insurance. It is your responsibility to read and understand the insurers T&C.

OP, there is strong chance you will lose your license if reported. It is automatic and cannot be defended.

No insurance = 6 points = licence lost (New Drivers Act)

Find a way to resolve this out of court/police.

vax2002

It may make sections of the policy invalid, but the contract is a certification issued for purposes of the road traffic act and until cancelled and served notice is valid.

wonn

vax2002 wrote: »

Do you have any type of contract or paper work appertaining to this insurance, if so and it is valid, it forms a contract and can not be retrospectively withdrawn.

They don't send paperwork, but I have a digital certificate in my email account right now. pdf form. It has been printed, I believe the garage has a copy and I think I already have one too (purely stating this in case time-stampting somehow becomes relevant - interestingly they've already deleted the 'online accessible' copy of my certificate, so the email is all I have if you see what I mean). My present belief is that it can be claimed that it is invalid, though.

wonn

vax2002 wrote: »

It may make sections of the policy invalid, but the contract is a certification issued for purposes of the road traffic act and until cancelled and served notice is valid.

Interesting. Sorry, I'm playing catch up. No idea if what you're saying is right, so not placing to much faith, but you might be helping me out massively. I wasn't notified of the policy being cancelled until about a fortnight after it had actually expired anyway, it being a 24 hour contract, of course.